


Mood and Song

by Serazimei



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Music, Short and Soft, Soft Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:00:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27243841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serazimei/pseuds/Serazimei
Summary: Jaskiers song is like a cats purr.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100





	Mood and Song

**Author's Note:**

> The next Chapter of Pack Building will take a while, so have something I wrote weeks ago and never posted instead.

Jaskiers singing is like a cats purr. It starts up for many reasons. Jaskier sings to earn money and to compose new songs most and foremost, of course. These two are obvious. He also sings when he is happy or excited. These two are also straight forward. Fear or nervousness too, are easy to identify.

But then there are other instances where Jaskier breaks out into song and Geralt can‘t quite tell why. There was this one time where Jaskier had gotten too close to a fight and gotten a Nekker claw swiped across his calf. And when they had gone to the healer to stitch it up instead of biting down on a strip of leather Jaskier had started a shaky rendition of Toss a Coin. Not once had he screamed or moaned, opting to sing through the pain instead.

Sometimes Geralt could hear him belting out lyrics in a sharp tone when he made his way to their room after a particularly exhausting hunt. Jaskier would always cut off as soon as Geralt entered their shared space, chattering at him instead and scolding him for being late and reckless. After a few times Geralt came to understand that Jaskier sung because he was worried, letting out his access energy through his voice.

He sung at night, too. To chase away Geralts nightmares and sooth his racing mind. To fill the silence and keep the cold world from crushing into their little bubble.

Singing, Geralt came to realize, was Jaskiers go to remedy whenever he felt lonely, anxious or even angry. Where others shouted and broke things, Jaskier would scream out songs like a siren fighting to be heard against the crashing waves and howling wind of a storm.

He sung when he was sad, too. And the moment Geralt had found out about that was probably one of the worst moments in his entire life. It had been after one particularly bad fight. One that had forced him to drink too many potions at once. He had passed out before the head of the beast had even fallen to the ground. And he had woken up with his head cushioned by Jaskiers legs, tears dripping onto his ashen face like raindrops from the sky. The song Jaskier had chosen to sing to his half dead body was a happy one and somehow that had made everything even worse. Because while the melody and lyrics had been cheerful Jaskiers voice had been anything but. It had been weak and it had trembled in the most beautiful, haunting, heartbreaking way. It had made Geralt cry out for Jaskier through the fire that burned in his throat just to make the sorrowful noise stop.

It took him years to realize the many facets of Jaskiers songs. They were like shards of coloured glass reflecting his moods in odd and twisted ways. And while Jaskier learned to read Geralts hums and grunts and sorted them by pitch, Geralt studied Jaskiers voice with the same stubborn focus.

Jaskiers songs were deceptive little things, hiding the truth behind layers and layers of symbolism. And they were never sung in a way that made sense to Geralt, seemingly chosen at random. Jaskier sung happy songs when he was angry, rowdy songs when he was sad and downright mournful songs when he was happy. Not always, of course. Sometimes the melodies and verses actually matched the occasion. But Geralt could not really count on that when it come to read his friends moods.

A much better indicator of how Jaskier was feeling were the small nuances in his voice when he sung. The barely there tremble when he was sad or scared. The hard edge when he was angry or frustrated.

Geralt‘s favourite was the softness that always crept into Jaskiers singing when he was especially happy. Not in the big, overly excited way, but the quiet, content one that told of peaceful evenings huddled together by the fire and sunny, uneventful days on the road.

He also liked the spark that appeared, whenever Jaskier was feeling especially flirty and confident. It often came out during performances when the crowd was overly receptive or a patron especially doting. The people loved it, got drunk on it in a way that made Geralt wonder more than once if Jaskier wasn‘t at least partially magic.

The most chilling one Geralt experienced on their first night together after the rather one-sided fight on the mountain, when Geralt had apparently apologized for the wrong things and didn‘t know how to deal with the new distance that had grown between them.

They had gotten a room together, both low on coin. Geralt had gone down to get them food and something to drink and when he made to go back up the stairs he froze. He had heard Jaskier sing before. Had heard him wailing in anguish and bellow out his rage at the world. But never before had he heard this cold, monotone, _dead_ voice. More a rhythmic chant than a song, low and earthy and _wrong_.

Geralt had shouldered his way into the room and Jaskier had stopped, stepped forward and rubbed his thumbs under Geralts wet eyes in wonder.

„Please don‘t sound like that.“ Geralt had whispered.

„Like what?“

„Like I‘ve broken you.“

He listened more carefully after that. Not only to Jaskiers singing, but also when he spoke. Not to his words of course. Jaskier spoke fast and a lot and at least half of it was rubbish embellishments and empty phrases. But here too Jaskiers voice was a dead give away.

Geralt cradled that knowledge close to his heart and started to use it as mortar to cover up the cracks he had left in their friendship. He talked more when Jaskier sounded anxious. Sat closer to him when he began to sing in that tone of his that betrayed the loneliness he felt. Drew back and stepped down when Jaskier got too worked up about something.

And slowly, carefully, Jaskier came back to him and opened up once more. Geralts small acts of kindness were returned tenfold, with smiles and reassuring words and nightmares sung away once again. With cocky oneliners and screamed arguements where Jaskier didn‘t shy away from Geralt anymore.

They orbited around each other, circling closer and closer until they inevitably crashed together. It was a glorious confrontation, full of passion and love held back for too long. It was also awkward, movements made in haste knocking into limbs and performance issues rearing their heads when old fears and anxieties took over.

When all was said and done Jaskier sung them to sleep again, voice as light as never before. Geralt soaked up the vibrations through Jaskiers chest. He hummed along then, for the first time doing what he had wanted to do for so long. And if he had asked Jaskier to rate the noise Geralt made he would have said it was a perfect C: indicating happiness.


End file.
